Lucky Number 7

8 AM, a Wednesday, exactly 7 weeks ago, I found myself flying through the air, my bicycle mysteriously absent from beneath me. The resulting impact with the ground, and the unbending nature of bone, left me without the full use of my right arm. The arm is still in it’s sling – that will hopefully end with the visit to the fracture clinic on Friday – but I’ve broken the rules, and I’m typing with both hands today.

Bliss.

New Beginnings

A while ago I mentioned I was starting a new gig. A little over a year later and my full-time involvement in that clients projects is coming to an end. In that post I mentioned that I would continue doing other work and so I have. In fact the volume of my independent projects has grown significantly over the past year.

So, as of June 30th, my full-time focus will be Codeferous Software.

I will miss working with this team, they’re a great bunch and I’ll miss them. I won’t however, miss working double-time to get all my projects completed and the constant sense that there isn’t enough time in the day to finish everything…

Ha! As if that is going to change.

FrogPad Tip

I just had a forehead smacking moment…

When using a FrogPad, rather than hitting key combinations in sequence, you chord them (hit them at the same time). For example: Play the letter "M" by hitting the [Space] and the [W] keys simultaneously rather than typing [Space] then [W].

I feel like such an idiot, but this one simple realization has nearly doubled my speed.

Wipeout!

Cue the surf guitar…

I’m suffering from a separated shoulder – the result of a freak bicycle accident involving a coke can, my front wheel, the sudden application of friction, and a practical demonstration of Newton’s first law of motion.

Sure I look rough, but you should see the can!

After spending 7 hours in the hospital emergency ward on Wednesday and another hour at the fracture clinic yesterday I’m left with my right arm in a sling – the exact same state I was in 5 minutes after being admitted. The extra 8 (plus) hours of waiting gained me this added wisdom: "Don’t use that arm." Advice I will gladly follow, since moving the position of that arm anywhere outside of a very small "sweet spot" maintained by the sling or doing anything more strenuous than pointing causes me to reassess the meaning of the word "excruciating."

Being one arm down makes typing somewhat difficult, so I’m trying to remedy this with technology: This post is being typed on a Bluetooth FrogPad and though I’m currently only producing about 10 words a minute that is only after a couple hours of practice. I’m cautiously pleased and expect that number to increase considerably.

One thing I’m very pleased with however, is the outstanding service I’ve received from FrogPad. They’ve answered all of my questions quickly and after hearing my story they expedited the order I placed yesterday afternoon so that it arrived this morning. Bravo!